Bev Sterk

ps...thanks for the confirmation, through your daughter, of gifted musicians/worshippers in this area...I (and others) are praying into the opportunity to increase their worship participation in different ways so that there will be several locations in the county where worship is going on 24/7...    Jesus, may Your Name be lifted up 24/7 in Whatcom County, and the United States and the whole world for that matter...

That is encouraging... so I will encourage (and challenge) you back...   I look forward to singing their next song in our church worship service  =)!! 

I recently suggested to the synod "contest" initiators, that maybe we could challenge our members to compose and write a worship song and the top ones would be published in the next song book, and also maybe be invited (with costs covered) to the next worship symposium to lead "their" song during worship.

I did not mean to sound critical, but only to encourage (and/or challenge) us all to keep moving to higher levels of worship, where Jesus is lifted up continually... "harp and bowl" worship (harp = music and bowl = prayers) based on Rev. 5:8.   There are times the Holy Spirt "downloads" new songs as the worship team (not at our church, but at the local prayer center with diverse denominations) is singing...  but these are usually in times of continual worship of 2 or more hours...  when we have worshipped a straight 24/7 , we have had amazing testimonies of breakthrough...

I know God has a sense of humor and can use any song, Christian or secular to "speak" to someone's heart, so I do not want to limit Him by defining what's worship, because what is worship for one, isn't necessarily the case for the next depending on a multitude of reasons...  One funny example of this in my life, was a few months ago, I was at a Hillsong United concert and before the concert they had misc. songs playing, and one was "All you need is love"... this struck me as funny (and the LORD emphasizing love to me), because our pastor had just emphasized the importance of love, with the point of without love, everything is a waste and fruitless... 

So I am praying for the release of many new songs from your area, and our denomination...  I see it as an untapped oil well, with rich "oil" that will flow forth via the Holy Spirit (I'm sure you know oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit)...   You mention harnessing it correctly... with the Holy Spirit as your Guide and counselor, you can't go wrong... so keep listening to Him, and again, excited for what God is doing and going to do with this generation and looking forward to those new songs...

I too get a little skeptical/snarky when people use words like "surely", "clearly", and "thus", like it so obvious to anyone with a brain, and therefore a foregone conclusion, and you would have to be pretty dense to think anything other than what they have so "clearly" presented.     +      

=)

Aye Aye  ban any from of the word "clear" for discussion...hahahaha... 

I am so glad that God does not look at outward appearances but at the heart... let's try His way and ask for His eyes to see each other with and not use our human ways of "organizing" and defining each other...  Let's ask the Holy Spirit to guide us in who should be selected for leadership positions as is done in Acts 13:1-3, and Acts 14:23...  He WILL still do that if we would but pray, fast and listen....then obey...or is that just too mystical for us western trained intellectuals?

with all the talk of diversity and unity at Synod, here are two beautiful expressions that I would love to see happen at some level in our denomination...  I'm praying into what that will look like, and waiting for God's leading to move forward in our community with this...but in the meantime enjoy, and be inspired!!

http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=FB1B9CNU    this one is by a Baptist group in Houston, so " neighbors" to the Sunrise church...  ...beautiful Easter dance with 2000 believers in downtown Houston... I think I cried the first dozen times I watched it..

http://ericwhitacre.com/the-virtual-choir

cool virtual choir with 2000 "videos" from around the world

I have been very encouraged by seeing young people (and in my case many in their 20's) with a heart to worship Him more...the local prayer center I am involved with, has 7-10 worship and prayer missionaries - most in their 20's -  who spend 10-40 hours a week in worship and prayer...One friend in this age group was asked what she liked to do in her spare time...Her response was - "worship God", and she does.

I sense that God is putting a fire in this generations heart for worship, and that we, as families and churches, need to pray for Him to lead us into additional times of worship where this generation has the opportunity to express themselves under the direction of the Holy Spirit in the worship, instead of almost exclusively being directed by adults.   I sense a "chomping at the bit" from the youth  to be more involved in the worship.   It is a very powerful experience to see how the Holy Spirit orchestrates a worship gathering, both through the planning (it's not just picking favorite songs), and then through His spontaneous promptings during the service, and to hear the testimonies of how the Holy Spirit "spoke" to different people in different ways through the worship, and often in the same song.

2 different people, within 15 minutes of each other, at 2 different gatherings expressed their excitement over an opportunity to worship for 2 hours -  extended times of worship...again, I see this heart for worship being stirred up, particularly in this generation, but we have to ask the LORD for His guidance on what this will look like (the verse the LORD put on my heart this week is Is. 28:29  NKJV - This comes from the LORD of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance)...  

I know in our community we have an abundance of gifted musicians and I believe the reason is for increased worship.  We need to steward these giftings, as in help them have opportunities to use them for the Kingdom...  it reminds me of the tabernacle of David, where worship was going on day and night at the temple.  In Acts 15, God shares that He is restoring David's tabernacle/tent (depending on version) - think Days of Elijah v2 - and these are the days of His servant, David, rebuilding a temple of praise!    We are all hardwired - designed, with a need that what we do is meaningful, and worship is!

We have seen several beautiful ministries flow out of the prayer center that were birthed from the worship and prayer times...  We have experienced incredible testimonies of Divine timing that could not be humanly orchestrated...the statistical probability of the convergence of events is basically impossible...  we have testimonies of  salvations and  healings, we have seen abortion rates drop and adoptions double in our county, we have seen our unemployment rate be one of the lowest in the state, if not the lowest, we have seen Godly leaders elected in our county- in a state (WA) that is known for being very liberal, and one of the least churched states in the US, these were not easy wins, but Praise God, He is making them happen as we labor in prayer with Him, and offer up our hearts in worship to Him... and we have seen beautiful growth in believer's walk with the LORD, where their faith is becoming a delight instead of a duty...they're  growing closer in their relationship with King Jesus...  HALLELUJAH!!! 

LORD, restore Your tabernacle of Praise, where Your Name is being lifted up 24/7...